世界昏迷時間最長者辭世 家人不棄守承諾

A woman who lived in a coma for 42 years, meticulously cared for by her family, died Wednesday in her home in Miami Gardens, Fla., the Miami Herald reported。

根據《邁阿密先驅報》的報道，一位昏迷長達42年的女性21日在位於邁阿密花園的家中辭世，終年59歲。在她昏迷的這麼多年中，家人一直不離不棄悉心照料。

Edwarda O’Bara was a 16-year-old high school student in 1970 when she became sick from her diabetes medication and slipped into a diabetic coma.

1970年，當時16歲的愛德華達·歐貝拉還是個高中學生，因爲糖尿病接受藥物治療，最後失去知覺陷入了昏迷，醫學上稱爲糖尿病昏迷症。

According to the Herald, just before she lost consciousness, Edwarda asked her mother, Kaye O’Bara, to never leave her side, and her family never did。

《邁阿密先驅報》報道稱，在她失去知覺前對母親凱伊說的最後一句話，是讓母親不要丟下她。而在她昏迷的42年中，她的家人一直堅守當初的承諾。

Edwarda’s father, Joe O’Bara, and Kaye took care of their daughter — reading to her, playing her music, making sure she was turned every two hours, bathed, given insulin and given nourishment through a feeding tube — until their deaths in 1976 and 2008, respectively. After that, Edwarda’s sister Colleen O’Bara took over。

愛德華達的父親喬和母親凱伊一直悉心照顧女兒，讀書給她聽，爲她彈奏音樂，每隔兩小時幫她翻一次身，爲她洗澡，爲她注射胰島素，用食管給她餵食，兩位老人一直堅持做這些直到兩人相繼去世：1976年父親喬因心臟病去世，2008年母親凱伊去世。母親去世後，妹妹科林恩接棒繼續照顧她。

Edwarda O’Bara spent more than four decades in a coma, but her family’s unending care for her became a story told across the world。

愛德華達昏迷了40多年，而她的家人不離不棄的悉心照料也讓她的故事傳遍了世界。

And visitors from across the world traveled to the Miami Gardens home, every year, sometimes appearing at the doorstep on random days, other times for Edwarda’s yearly birthday party, a boisterous affair with decorations, balloons and cake。

每年都會有從世界各地來的人前往邁阿密花園拜訪他們。有些人可能隨時來，有一些人則會趕在每年愛德華達的生日聚會來。每年的生日聚會人們都會幫忙裝飾，氣球和蛋糕給家裏帶來歡樂的氣氛。

Through it all, Edwarda remained in a coma. But to her family and followers she remained vibrantly alive. Colleen O’Bara described her as “the best sister in the whole wide world。”

雖然這些年愛德華達一直處於昏迷狀態。但對她的家人和關注她的人來說，她一直都在充滿活力的生活着。妹妹科林恩描述她是“這個世界上最好的姐妹”。

“She taught me so much, and I’m talking about now, after she was in the coma,” Colleen O’Bara said. “She taught me so much about unconditional love that I couldn’t say I had it before. She taught me about patience, that I didn’t have before. I learned so much from taking care of my sister. It’s like I grew up overnight。”

科林恩這樣說道：“她教給了我很多，我指的是特別在她昏迷之後。她教會我要無條件地付出愛，這些我以前真的都沒有做到；她教會我以前所沒有的耐心。在照顧姐姐的這些年裏我學到了很多，就算是一夜之間長大了一樣。”

In an announcement of Edwarda's death posted Thursday on a website dedicated to her, Colleen O'Bara wrote: "Yesterday while taking care of Edwarda I noticed her looking directly at me and gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen. She then closed her eyes and joined my Mom in Heaven.

"週四科林恩將愛德華達去世的消息公佈在專門爲她設立的網站上，她在公告中寫到：“昨天在照顧愛德華達的時候，我注意到她直直的看着我然後給了我一個大大的微笑，這是我見過她笑得最開心的一次。然後她閉上眼睛，去天堂和我的母親相會了。”